Philadelphia roundtable focuses on church management issues

National Catholic Reporter, July 30, 2004

By CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE and NCR STAFF

The church should learn from the business world and adopt some of the management, financial and human resource practices of the private sector to better carry out its mission. That was among the messages sent and received July 9 and 10 in Philadelphia, where about 175 prominent Catholics--among them business leaders, academics, bishops and philanthropists--spent two days brainstorming the future of the U.S. church.

The meeting, held at the Wharton School of Business, was "primarily about governance" and methods to "utilize the mechanisms already within the church" to improve its operations, said Geoffrey T. Boisi, a former Goldman, Sachs & Co. partner and Catholic philanthropist who was one of the chief organizers of the gathering. The meeting was closed to media but some participants spoke with the press after it concluded.

The leadership roundtable was a follow-up to a one-day meeting in Washington a year ago in which about 45 Catholic corporate, educational and other leaders met with a small group of bishops to discuss leadership challenges facing the U.S. church. A follow-up report from that gathering said that "there exists within the U.S. church a significant managerial problem at both the national level and within many individual dioceses."

Those gathered in Philadelphia took that conclusion a step farther and developed some recommendations to improve the way the church conducts its business.

Francis J. Butler, president of FADICA (Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities), cited as an example the conclusions from a breakout session on finances that he led. He said participants in that session recommended:

* That every diocese comply with the church's national standards for financial accountability.

* That dioceses have mechanisms to assure donors that the diocese is in compliance.

* That financial transparency be a goal and that annual audits be conducted in every parish and diocese.

* That efforts be made to strengthen the finance councils of parishes and dioceses.

* That financial planning processes be established that make sense to those affected by them.

* That the effectiveness of church fundraising be reviewed at every level.

Eight breakout sessions addressed pastoral governance models and the role of the laity at the parish, diocesan and national level. Three sessions addressed management of human resources, again at parish, diocesan and national levels. In the final two breakout sessions, on issues of managing financial resources, the first was devoted to parish and diocesan levels together and the second to the national level.

Among those featured in the meeting's first panel presentation, on "Challenges and Opportunities in Governance and Accountability for Institutions in Transition," were San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada, Jesuit Fr. J. Donald Monan, former president of Boston College, and Frederick W. Gluck, former managing partner of McKinsey & Co., an international management consulting firm.

Bishop William B. Friend of Shreveport, La., said he was struck by "the very high degree of commitment, the love of the church and love of the Lord" evident in the gathering. Bishop Tod D. Brown of Orange, Calif., supported Friend's remarks.

"I don't think I've ever been with a group like this before" in terms of the concentration of talent, experience and dedication the meeting brought together, he said.